Subblogs

"Joshua "Dr. Science" Gilbert" (joshuagilbert) 08/03/2014 at 02:25 • Filed to: kinja

0

24

Hello Kinjanauts, (Is that a real term?)

So recently I was reading that support was garnering for a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

In light of this, and the establishment of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , I have realized a few things. I'm a decent writer, I think. I can put down an intelligible paragraph from time to time. Additionally, I have a lot of varied interests, in and out of the automotive world. I'm pretty nerdy and knowledgeable about a lot of stuff, and as such, I like to write about this stuff. So I decided to write down a list of subblogs I think should be created. This is entirely based off of my own interests, but I will keep my eyes on the comments. Recommend, comment on, and repost this article, and I will keep editing the list for conciseness and to incorporate popular ideas.

A question for the veterans:

1) How to I create a subblog? How does one create a subblog for Jalopnik or Oppositelock that is recognized or sanctioned?
2) How do you author people?

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the list of subblogs I have made up, by related category.

Jalopnik/Oppositelock:

Automotive Design Subblog This blog will essentially be a discussion area for stories of ongoing trends in automotive design in terms of design technology and fashion trends among automakers, as well as the history of automotive design. Writers encouraged to do historical and graphical comparisons. Spy shots and concepts can be posted here. : "A-Line," "Wheelhouse," "The Cowl," "Chrome," "thedrawingboard," "Pillars," "Tumblehome," "Brightwork," !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

Drifting Subblog Dedicated to the art and science of drifting. Well written articles, please. "Catchmy," "Ebrake," "Yoko," "Drift," "Newshoes"

American Performance/Muscle/USDM From history, to current development, to modification, restoration, and general hooning of classic, modern, and future American muscle. "TheStable," "RevWhiteandBlew," "Revwhiteandblue," "Ironblocks," "Bigblock," "built," "Thelegacy," I don't know think of a better name, haha.

"Inmygarage" "Greasmonkies"- a subblog that helps readers get into easy to understand modifications and maintenance, written in a by-request weekly articles.

"Boosted/Cranked" - horsepower/efficiency/speed hunting blog, automotive technological development. Talks about the future and the insanity of automotive engineering.

Foxtrotalpha/Jalopnik: more of oppositelocks for FA

Military (ground) vehicles: "GP"
Military (air) vehicles: "Thecalvary," "Angels"
Military (sea)/naval history: "Ondeck"

History

Burned/Burnafterreading: The Kinja blog about espionage. The history, the technology, the men, the women, and the missions. Additionally we will talk about the origins of espinonage from ancient tales, to the Middle Ages, to the Cold War, to Vietnam and the CIA. And today, as well, at least what we think we know.

Music

The Beat: Talks about the actual music and production involved in making hip hop and R&B music.

Weneedavan: Talks about the establishment of local, small-time, and garage bands. Mainly on the alternative and rock scene.

———

I will keep updating this article as I / Us come up with more ideas .

GhostZ > Joshua "Dr. Science" Gilbert 08/03/2014 at 02:31

8

I'm going back to my cake analogy:

Creating sub blogs for things that exist on Oppo already are like eating bread and squeezing a tube of frosting into your mouth, and calling it cake. One becomes boring, the other oversaturated.

If you want to make a sub-blog, do it for specific things that do not yet appear on Oppo and maybe wouldn't be well-received by the entire community here.

In the case of JDM stuff, there's plenty of content here and if you post an article, there are few people on Oppo (if any) who would say "this doesn't belong here."

In the case of Trains, there's very little conten t about trains on Oppo and if you post an article, many peopl e would say "this doesn't belong here".

Which means making a JDM sub-blog is like removing the icing from a cake and eating the ingredients separately.

Making a Train sub-blog is like adding a course to your meal that wasn't there before, perhaps a salad or something else. It adds to the experience without changing it, rather than just sub-dividing it or moving parts around.

The only legitimate sub-blog that I can see being made for Oppo is one about stance . Because it's a relatively controversial topic that some people don't like, but some people really like, so the audience's needs are not being fully met when they are put into the same category. Again, this is like having lettuce on your cake. People complain that it doesn't belong, but some people really like lettuce. Serve it on the side, as a sub-blog, and everyone is happy.

Ferrero1911 > Joshua "Dr. Science" Gilbert 08/03/2014 at 03:40

0

I haven't tried it, but I've saved this link for reference.

http://gamecat235.kinja.com/how-to-create-…

Stef Schrader > Joshua "Dr. Science" Gilbert 08/03/2014 at 03:49

1

We're approaching peak sub-blog, but I'm still disappointed that Puffalumps Sitting On Things didn't make the cut.

CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) > GhostZ 08/03/2014 at 03:52

1

Agreed. JDM is covered but stance is a matter of choice for most opponauts

GhostZ > CCC (formerly CyclistCarCoexist) 08/03/2014 at 03:59

0

I actually think a Stance sub blog would be beneficial to the community. Tasteful stuff can be crossposted, but to say that we get a lot of good stance articles on Oppo right now is a lie.

Eazy-O > GhostZ 08/03/2014 at 05:09

5

Wanna solve the subblog dilemma? Join the chat here. [for repost on Oppo]

While the original author has too many options, and I generally agree with you, right now I can't find anything on Oppo, because:

1) nobody tags their shit

2) shit platform that is Kinja not letting us see the more popular/most recently replied to posts

3) metric shit tons of anime, polandball, cuteness, nakeds and personal stuff*

* These are all things I enjoy, but not when I want car shit. If anything, Oppo needs a subblog for off topic.

Because let's face it, Oppo might be off topic for the front page of Jalopnik, but I'll be damned if I go talk cars with that bunch of ferals.

I suggest we make "Hi, I'm Nibby!" the overlord of the brand spanking new Off Throttle subblog and anyone who posts their non-car stuff on Oppo is shunned.

Shunnnnnnnnn-ah.

duurtlang > Eazy-O 08/03/2014 at 05:48

0

My suggestion:

Create an Oppo sticky post with a few suggestion/tips. Let this include proper tagging, with suggestions. If you want to discuss something mechanical use tag x, if you want to discuss stance use tag y and when discussing polandpall use z. And on and on. This will create tag based subblogs while not changing oppo as we know it, and it will prevent ignorance about which tag to use.

All this is already possible, but we need to promote consistent tag usage.

OkCars- 22k Crossroads > GhostZ 08/03/2014 at 05:49

0

right. This is what i thought when fractal footwork made a sub blog for F1.

Oppo posted many things from F1. Including some awesome posts by Fractal himself. I just dont get why he needed to make a sub blog for F1.

At least everything posted there, gets shared on oppo.

GhostZ > Eazy-O 08/03/2014 at 06:28

0

The root of the problem is that the internet figured out how to do forums and blogs 10 years ago, and Gawker refuses to use/follow the systems that already work, in search of more and more applause. Or, er, views.

This wouldn't be a discussion if we had forum-based directory, which has been used for over a decade by the rest of the internet for such things.

Eazy-O > duurtlang 08/03/2014 at 08:38

0

Stickies? We can have stickies? O___O Hm.

Back in the day, promoting proper usage of subforums (in this case tags, basically), was more like policing. So basically we'd need a few mods willing to get on people's cases and at first tag their posts and let them know in the replies, with serious repeat offenders getting posts deleted and eventually a short ban. Yeah, back in the day, we loved the banhammer.

These days, however, I'm afraid such tactics will not work. It's hard to even voice a disagreeing opinion, without people throwing tantrums...

Eazy-O > GhostZ 08/03/2014 at 08:40

1

I know man, you're preaching to the choir. I've been a forum brat since I've started internetting in the late '90s. I wants my phpBB2. Whatever was wrong with it?

You do have to concede, that even on forums, there'd be an off-topic subsection. :)

Leadbull > Eazy-O 08/03/2014 at 09:10

4

The random off-topic stuff is what makes Oppositelock what it is. This place was called "Off Topic" back in the day. That stuff has always been a part of Oppo's DNA, and it always will be.

This place is busy, but it's not overcrowded, in my opinion. You can simply scroll back to find stuff, and the most popular posts show up in the sidebar and BoO/Oppositeblog.

Oppositelock should not be a place to garner individual intention. It's a place to share cool — usually automotive/other-mechanical — stuff with like minded people, and to engage in the community. Frankly, I think some people here should kindly get over themselves.

Numerous sub blogs will only cheapen the experience, in my opinion. Why? See above. In essence, it unravels out tight-knit community; our tight-knitness is our best feature.

Nibby > Eazy-O 08/03/2014 at 09:11

0

SHUN THE NON-BELIEVER, SHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Eazy-O 08/03/2014 at 09:45

0

Completely agree; It's pretty annoying to come on to oppo, only to see an article about someones cat: there are so many cats and they all act ridiculous; yours is not special...but some people feel differently, thus it goes in the new "OPPO OFF AXIS" Sub Blog (rename if you want; just make it happen.

Now if your your cat is driving your CAR (keyword here is CAR)...sure go ahead and put that in oppo. Oppo is about cars and car related matters...PERIOD.

Sn210 > Joshua "Dr. Science" Gilbert 08/03/2014 at 10:09

1

echoing the input from others, most of these sub-blog proposals would make great series on oppo. By series, I mean regularly scheduled posts about the same topic, tagged and titled the same way. Start here, get a following, then branch off. Look at CarBuying and Live and Let Diecast; topics and discussion started here, interest in the topics grew and grew, and now they are their own sub-blogs.

Gamecat235 > Stef Schrader 08/03/2014 at 10:11

0

We all assumed you would be chairing that one. =)

Gamecat235 > Joshua "Dr. Science" Gilbert 08/03/2014 at 10:17

1

When I wrote up the instructions a few months ago most of the other major communities here underwent a similar process of new blog creation. A few great spaces were established, and a great many more are just sitting there.

And for the record, the Hot Wheels Exchange Program becoming Live and Let Diecast was a pretty solid move. They share regularly, but also have their own space. So it can work.

I think a jdm one would just take away from what we have here. There isn't a dominating amount of jdm traffic here, and most of us are at least interested in the jdm cars, if not the rest of the movement.

Fwiw, I wrote this: http://groupthink.jezebel.com/general-apolog… when this came up over on groupthink. I do feel slightly responsible for providing the writeup, but if I hadn't, someone else would have. And I recognize that.

GhostZ > Eazy-O 08/03/2014 at 11:53

0

The only thing wrong with PHPBB2 is the invention of PHPBB3.

But my point is that on Forums, you have an off-topic section that is readily navigable and easy to identify. when you have a bunch of connected blogs, it doesn't become obvious that it even exists, much less what constitutes as 'off topic' for it. It breaks the cardinal rule of online content communities: Don't do anything that makes people unable to post new content that would otherwise benefit the community.

GhostZ > Eazy-O 08/03/2014 at 11:54

0

I don't think we can have stickies, I've never seen it in Kinja (doesn't mean it doesn't exist!) and you'd think that the rule posts wouldn't need to get reposted often if we could just sticky them.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Leadbull 08/03/2014 at 14:26

1

I generally agree with you, but I do feel like, in some cases, the sub-blogs are good for the long-term health of OPPO. Live and Let Die Cast is a good example. I think they've done it perfectly, and sharing their "best of" over here from time to time is a great way to keep them involved with the greater community.

I really don't like the idea of us all segmenting ourselves into groups that focus on what we're most interested in, however - that's already going on at a myriad of other automotive forums. The mix of new and old, domestic and international, high-performance cars and jalopies, is what makes OPPO unique, and great. My only concern with OPPO, and one of the reasons I'm helping DasWauto bring back BoO (along with OppositeBlog), is that there are so many authors, and is so much content, that it's far too easy for a brilliant post that someone spent hours working on to quickly get lost under a pile of GIFs and one-sentence posts.

Thanks again for your post.

Leadbull > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 08/03/2014 at 14:36

0

I think LALD works so well because it isn't just a sub-segment of Oppo. They have their own purpose (trade cars, Traveling Torchbug).

And thanks for doing Oppositeblog. I think that will solve everyone's "I can't find good posts" grievances.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Leadbull 08/03/2014 at 14:52

0

I hope so. Glad to do it.

Stef Schrader > Gamecat235 08/03/2014 at 15:20

0

Ah. I also need more hours in the day and someone to read the Lulzcer bedtime stories when I park it in my carport for the night.

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Joshua "Dr. Science" Gilbert 08/03/2014 at 16:09

3

I have to say, I don't agree with the idea of all these sub-blogs. If you feel that there is something that doesn't get enough coverage on Oppo, bring it up. But creating a bunch of little sub-blogs makes no sense. The internet already has sites and blogs dedicated to everything you just mentioned, car-wise. The entire point of Oppo is that it allows people to come together and share what they love about cars with everyone else. Oppo could easily be split up into who likes what and who wants to talk about what. The entire point of it is that it isn't This would be like taking a large group of friends and saying, "Okay, all you who like football, go talk over there, all you who like tennis, over there, and all you who bowl, somewhere else as well." You end up with a bunch of small, non-diverse groups of people talking about the same thing. There are sites for that. Oppo is not one of them.

As for the non-car subblogs, those might have some merit.